Ran was preparing to take another step forward when he finally noticed he was standing on nothing but air.
His legs began to quiver—he looked down and saw the ground was several thousands of feet down.
By kin, this was way worse than standing on the back of a Lagarakei.
How was he doing this?
He felt all his rage wash away as it was replaced by confusion and a bit of fear—he had no idea what would happen should he fall.
No, no, no. He had pretty much a bunch of ideas of what would happen, what he actually had no idea about was what could make him fall.
He had no idea what he was doing to remain stable standing on thin air so he could even postulate to what he could do that would make things go wrong and might lead to him falling.
In a nutshell, he had no inkling whatsoever of the 'dos and don'ts' of whatever the hell it was doing.
And that, that very fact—
It scared the hell out of him.
"Are you done raging at me, my young Knave?" Mukoku asked, making him raise his head to look at her.
"Huh?" He uttered in confusion before he registered what she said and in reference to what. "Oh, yes… yes I'm definitely done with that."
No need to antagonize the only person who could save him in this situation.
"So I guess you'd like me to carry you?" Mukoku asked, making him nod his head up and down so quickly that he felt his head would fall off.
Mukoku flew forward and grabbed all of his sixteen plus years old self and lifted him up like a sack of potatoes and placed him on her shoulder.
"An interesting Knave you have there."
Ran could not see his face but he clearly heard the voice of the Prince of Souls. It had a timbre that made his spirit itch. He felt like if he was a dead spirit the sound of that voice alone would make him recoil.
"Yes, and his interesting attribute has no reason to draw your attention, Xin. Look away," Mukoku responded, and Ran felt her hands tighten around him possessively.
He wondered when she became so possessive. But then again, it was an ancient fact that the devil and his children were very possessive of their properties and things they considered theirs.
Mukoku flew off and Ran looked up to see the Prince was now in line of sight. Mukoku had flown away from him.
She was fast, but he did not feel any drag or inertia. Her aura protected him. He had no way of measuring anything less than a second, but with how long he took his heart to beat from when she picked him up till after she landed, he'd guess she could move at nanoseconds or even in an instant.
She set him down and he looked around to see that they were in what little was left of the realm of blazes. The whole city was gone, though.
It had been completely replaced by nothingness. It couldn't be seen, heard, touched, felt, only sensed spiritually.
For it had been burned by the greatest fire of the universe.
"You look sick?" Mukoku asked him.
Ran shook his head in denial. "No, you're just too fast."
She chuckled. "That's because I sever the distance between myself and my destination, making my arrival instant from my departure."
Looking up, Ran gestured at the figure of the black demon who was still hovering in the air. "And him, how does he fly?"
"Currently he's using heat in a way you couldn't understand even if I explained it to you. To match my speed though he'd need to bring out the flames."
Which, as if he could hear them— which he probably just might be able to —the Prince of Souls did just then.
He accelerated towards them like a missile, making Ran take a hasty step back.
He wasn't as fast as Mukoku but he soon impacted on the dark souls of his realm with a heavy boom, sending dark dust into the air where they instantly burned from his fiery aura.
The Prince approached them, and Ran noticed that he was not holding the Hakokage.
For that matter, how had the box been resealed?
When he asked Mukoku, watching the demon Prince approach them, she scoffed.
"It's an old trick. We use the mortals of Naraku to do our hard work for us. Of course it'd be difficult to find seven mages willing to die and let their souls possess the box to reseal it. Well, for you that might seem difficult, but we Demons, my dear Knave… why, we are very devious minded."
"So you closed the box with your cunning?" He asked, turning to glance at her.
She gave him a look he was getting used to now, one of an owner who found their pet's boldness and tantrums so adorable.
"Wow, you even now know how to be sarcastic. You've grown a lot, my darling Knave," she responded, making him snort. "We know that there's no danger to Kurana that the Supreme Spiritualist, Master Sei, isn't aware of. He's the man who can see the future before even those who have made plans for it. We knew that should we throw the box into Naraku, it would land in a place where he'd be waiting with seven willing mages, to stop the flames before all of Kurana and your precious Earth could be destroyed."
"What?!" Ran yelled, finding his rage again. "You sent the box to Kurana? You know how many could have died."
"Fifteen thousand," said a voice that made his spirit feel the urge to retch.
Xin had reached them and was standing only a few meters away. "Fifteen thousand people died from two villages before the souls of the mages finally closed the box. A good thing I predicted such a thing would happen and used it as an avenue to orchestrate a ritual for one of my Knaves."
Ran stared at the demons in disgust. "You sacrificed the lives of thousands."
"In exchange to make a Knave as powerful as a god by empowering his kin with the sacrifice of fifteen thousand souls." The demon didn't look even a tiny bit sad or disturbed by what he was saying.
And neither did Mukoku for that matter.
Xin sighed. "I had a Knave cleave through her breasts with a ritual dagger with no hesitation. How did you think I earned such loyalty? The loyalty I enjoy, mortal boy, is from the deeds I have made in favor of my Knaves. Now I have rewarded one with enough power to destroy an entire army of mages and monks. What do you think the others would sacrifice to express their loyalty to me?"
Ran could have sworn the demon was enjoying the effect his wicked words were having on him.
He glared at the man in disgust. He was a monster that deserved no less than a horrible death. It'd be nice and ironic if that death came via the very Hakokage he'd created.
Ran would pay anything to be there and witness that.
"I do reward my Knaves, Kaito Ran," the demon said.
Ran felt that the statement had been strangely addressed to him more than in a manner of conservation, he felt like he had been urged to take meaning from it and make of it whatever he could.
"No reward is worth a life," he retorted firmly.
The demon grinned. "What's the worth of a life? That's a question that can never be answered. In a tight fix for you mortals, all lives are worthless. You are ready to kill anyone to get what you want. I'm sure you wouldn't hesitate to unleash the Hakokage upon Naraku should that get you your father back."
Ran gasped and felt all the air in his lungs escape out of him. He was short of breath and completely speechless. He was rendered silent because he couldn't refute the demon's statement.
He'd let the universe burn to save his father.
If anything, Xin had understated how far he'd go.